Category Archives: Current Events
Current Event: Wikileaks — a source of private and leaked information
On Februrary 19, 2008, the Wikileaks domain name was shut down as a result of a lawsuit filed by a group of Swiss bankers. Wikileaks is a website where people can confidentially and anonymously post sensitive, often leaked, information.
Humanoid Robot has future in Japan
Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4714135.stm
http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080301/ap_on_re_as/japan_robot_nation;_ylt=AoX4B6VHVtvql_qBo0RBZj8jtBAF
http://www.stat.go.jp/English/data/handbook/c02cont.htm Continue reading
Security Vulnerability in Mac OS X – LoginWindow.app
A security vulnerability in loginwindow.app on Mac OS X was reported to bugtraq this week. The vulnerability is that the user password is still resident in memory after the system authenticates the user.
The new sliding door at the CSE building
I want to start a discussion about the new sliding door we just got. I talked to Karl and he explained how the door works. It seems that the sliding door has two sensors, radar and infrared. The radar sensor … Continue reading
Facebook storing your information
While this may not be breaking news, it turns out that Facebook has taken just one more step in not respecting their user’s privacy. According to a semi-recent article in the New York Times, Facebook retains user profile information even after the … Continue reading
RIAA investigators unaware of IP spoofing or BGP hijacking?
Slashdot reports that an assistant professor of Delft University Technology in the Netherlands calls a recent investigation by the RIAA, “Borderline Incompetent”. A recent investigation by the RIAA was accusing the defendants of distributing copyright material over Kazaa. In the … Continue reading
Pakistan ISPs, Routing, and YouTube
Here’s a link to the article I mentioned today in class, which is related to the material that we covered on Friday: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/02/pakistan_censorship_order_take.html (from The Washington Post). Here’s a quote from the article: So, what happened? From everything I’ve read … Continue reading
DVD Jon’s DoubleTwist
Jon Johansen (known for his work in defeating CSS in DVDs) has recently released an application known as DoubleTwist. DoubleTwist is designed to defeat Apple’s FairPlay DRM by playing the track’s in fast forward and capturing the analog signal as … Continue reading
Google to Store Patient Health Data
News article here, covered on Slashdot here. Google, with the cooperation of the Cleveland Clinic, is beginning a project to record medical history and other health-related data for patients. The stated goal is to provide patients with a way to … Continue reading
ISP caching issue exposes Gmail data
Last week, when a Kuwait-based Gmail user tried logging in, he was denied access to his own account, and instead was granted access to over 30 accounts that did not belong to him. He was able to peek into other … Continue reading